Student Teachers ’ Confidence and Competence for Finding Information on the Internet

Abstract: There is popular belief that current university students, who belong to the age group labelled as Generation Y or the Millennials, are more skilled than previous generations with computers by virtue of having grown up with them. Occasionally contrary voices suggest that, despite their obvious confidence with technology, the so-called digital natives are not necessarily more skilled. This study confirmed that first year university students report high levels of confidence in their ability to find information on the Internet but do not necessarily manifest matching levels of competence. If teacher graduates are to have the information literacy skills they need for their own lifelong learning and the capability to teach those skills in their own classrooms then changes to university information literacy teaching may be needed. Information literacy is well recognised as an imperative at all levels of education in Australia. A national school education plan for the information economy included among its goal that “all students will leave school with the employment-related skills needed in the information economy ” and noted that “information and technological literacy are now essential pre-requisites to work in almost any career ” (EdNA, 2000, p. 5). Universities also include information literacy in statements of graduate attributes, referring, for example, to “the information literacy and independent learning skills required for them to pursue personal and professional development throughout thei